ODDYSEY

Ok back to my original question, where is a good place to find those gauges that would fit. Anyone?

themac5150

If I were doing it, boost and fuel pressure. The car would be tuned for the X, no reason for a wide band, unless you like to tinker with A/F settings. But if you lost fuel pressure, and were running way too lean, you could really mess something up. I don't know why boost would be "necessary"... you'll hear the banshee scream and know you're in it... I guess it could show a vacuum leak if it appeared.
On a side note, I looked at the installation of both, the boost gauge seems pretty straight forward. The fuel pressure on the other hand, I have no clue how to hook one up. If/when I do the X, I wasn't going to do any gauges. But I read a few valid points and considered it, and how complicated the install would be. I really don't think it's necessary with the PCM controlling EVERY aspect of the engine running, seems you'd get thrown into limp mode if any major issues occurred. But if you were racing... it would only take a few seconds at WOT for disaster to strike. I'm still on the fence about the gauges. What gauges are stock on the GT500?

Ford_Dude

http://www.jegs.com/p/Auto+Meter/745230/10002/-1

95cobby

First of all do NOT get those gauge holders. Find a full A-pillar or the one for in the middle of the dash. Autometer gauges are the best, the cobalt series glows blue. I'd get a triple a-pillar and put wideband air fuel, boost, and fuel pressure.

ODDYSEY

And don't get these gauge holders why? They ARE a full piller, they aren't some bolt on holder.

95cobby

I've heard that sytle of gauge pod is cheap. I'm not saying buy your parts from this place but at the top of the pageare the 2 different gauge pods I'm talking about. If you scroll down a little more you'll see the cobalt gauges and some others that light up at night.

http://www.rpmoutlet.com/05v6gaugea.htm

It's your choice though man.

Bandit111

I have a dual sos pod.For now,i have a/f wideband and boost.BOTH have already shown me in a short timeframe i have been boosted that something was'nt quite right and i had an issue of some sort.

The tunes may be safe,but can you really live with that driving on blind faith and all you have invested?I did for a week,and it REALLY started bugging me,lol.Fuel pressure and intake temps are next,probably thru an areoforcetech guage mounted in the driver side vent with a vent pod.

Hooking stuff up was made hard by me because i'm not too bright with electrical things,lol.Looking back,it was quite easy.

themac5150

Back in the day, when nothing was computer controlled, it really was blind faith.I could understand a need for constantly surveying a bunchof gauges, there was no PCM managing anything. But now, today... I don't think so. I looked around and could only find a boost gauge on the GT500 cluster. Nothing else fancy.We slam C&L intakes on and pump in tunes all day long. We don't worry then? What is an intake temp going to tell you? Is this for a SC or a turbo? On an X-charger? What good is it...tell you it's hot outside, your car is heat soaked, possible detonation problems? If it reads a non standard temp, what is your corrective action? What if you're300 miles from home? Doesn't the PCM get the intake temp info and do its magic accordingly?
What were the problems your gauges revealed? What did you do to fix them?
I'm just really looking for sound advice. School me! The only reason I was considering an Xcharger is because it was a plug-n-play upgrade worth almost 100 ponies. The ads and info I've read said it was low boost, safe fun. Perfect for a daily driver. If this thing is so volatile it requires all of these extra gauges, sensors, and MONEY, I don't want to have anything to do with it. My car is quite entertaining with the 93 torque tune.
I don't want a finicky drag car that would break all the time, and I sure don't want to have it's reliability in question whenever I get behind the wheel.

Bandit111

Yes,i have an x-charger.Shortly following the install,i started to get a whine similar to a vortech,lol,and it was thought to be the belt.I went thru alot of effort to fix the belt up,clean the pulleys,etc,etc.

Finally,after 2 days of that,i resorted to a stethescope and tb cleaner,and found i had a vacuum leak bigtime.Now,had my boost guage been installed at that time,i would not have been guessing and tinkering and spinning my wheels trying to figure it out.The vacuum reading on the guage woulda been off the charts,telling me what to look for.It's nosiy in there,so it really is hard to discern what noise is what like what happened.

That's just one example.Another is i had another vacuum leak from when i installed the guage.It told on itself,lol.

My a/f o2 sensor was loose.I got very erratic readings,telling me to look things over.

Neither of the last 2 were like dead obvious or even condition critical but relevanty to peak performance of what i have.Who knows how long i would be driving about before knowing something was amiss.So,i am just saying that even tho i had the very safe tune,there can be human error,a hose break loose,a leak develop,etc.etc.

Yes,i agree intake temp is not a must,but i think like this.My setup is non-intercooled atm.Summer is coming.Once you know what the typical temp should be,you know when you are really pushing the temps up and when to stay out of boost.It also gives you a good idea of how well things are staying cool under the hood and how the airflow is there.

I think the gt500 is well detuned.I imagine guys who actually drive theirs(not cooped up in a garage 90% of the year) and that want to get closer to its potential performance retune it and bring it up a notch,do get more guages.

When you compare an intake and tune to forced induction,they really should'nt be taken with the same casuallness.We're talking about something that gives possibly 20hp to something possibly giving 100+ horsepower thru different means,the latter being less tolerant and less forgiving to error.

In closing,mainly,i have and want guages for the human error and "**** happens" factors.Totally,i believe F/I is not set it and forget it stuff be we all must make our decisions,so i'm not twistin anybodies arm,lol.